A “good” teacher-teaching ethically

Professional ethics?

• Professional ethics are implied in practice, not always visible and mostly unspoken

• Professional ethics seem not to build on knowledge, but personal feelings and beliefs (Colnerud & Granström, 2002, Thornberg, 2008)

How do all this affect learning professional ethics in teacher education?

Professional ethics need to be discussed and problematized through didactic plans and implementation

Research questions

• What does it mean to teach ethically (what is the essence of professional ethics)?

• How do student teachers learn to teach ethically?

LIFEWORLD THEORY

LIFE WORLD:Heidegger, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer When you direct yourself at something and interpret

it as something, lifeworld is shaped.Different lifeworlds meet in teaching and affect teachingContext decides how student teachers need to actLevinas

The encounter with the Other rises an inevitable requirement of ethical responsibility

Methodology

Reflective lifeworld research (RLR)Find the essential meaning of the phenomenon,

professional ethics• Openness, bridling, reflecting• Moving between whole-part• Systematic analysis, meaning units, cluster

Method

• Data: Different texts, for example didactic plans, observations and interviews with ten students, educating themselves as teachers of children from preschool up to elementary school.

• Second to fourth semester

Essence

Professional ethics mean to intertwine learning and relationships

Getting to know the children and their needs will strengthen the opportunities to help them developing.

Professional ethics mean to use experiences to the child´s best

When meeting children, your own experiences can be valuable in understanding the child but you should never let your own feelings or needs take over.

Essence

Professional ethics mean to include each childRegardless of the difficulties it means to let the

child participate. You have a responsibility to include everybody and meet each child on its own terms.

Professional ethics mean to be an authoritative but not authoritarian

The authority is created through an atmosphere of joy, respect and security.

Essence

Professional ethics mean an ambiguity that demands responsible decisions.

Uncertainty makes learning of professional ethics difficult. Student teachers do not always understand why placement teachers act as they do.

Professional ethics are developed when theory and practice are entwined in reflection

Students are telling that they sometimes just do but afterwards think about the situation.

Didethics-model in three stepsStep 1

Ethics:Attitudes

Values/normsMeanings of professional

ethics

Topic:Curricula

Different levelsCurrent

Methods:How do we actually

work to put together ethics and curricula?

Step 2

Pedagogue

• Preunderstanding• Responsibility• Curricula and

professional ethics are interwoven in a planning with suitable methods

Meeting

• The planning is transformed

• Implementation• Children and

pedagogue as agents

Children

• Preunderstanding

Step 3

Didethical planning

Transformation in practice

meeting the children

Reflection

Learning to teach ethically

Dispositions– self-awareness– what values do I express in my actions?– learning in practice

Judgment– balancing act– context– learning in practice

Reflection– self-reflection

Thank you for your attention!

marita.cronqvist@hb.se

QUESTIONS?